The Map - Meet the Writers

Crystal M M Burton

CWC Story Coordinator

Crystal M M Burton - 27 - Texas, USA

Project 5 Story Coordinator

Crystal lives in rural Central Texas with her loving husband and their three energetic children. She is a veteran of the United States Navy who now proudly serves as a stay-at-home mother and wife. She works from home as an author and editor, and in her free time enjoys crocheting, gaming, and movie marathons. When she’s not writing or chasing the children, Crystal is either exploring her passion for learning or diving into one of her favorite fandoms.

She has been published in multiple short story anthologies, and co-authored a zombie fiction novel with five other writers, coming in 2016. Her most recent project, Light & Shadow, is a fantasy novel, written in tandem with an intertwining companion novel, Shadow & Light, by friend and author M.W. King. Their books are being represented by Rambunctious Ramblings Publishing Inc. and are set to be released in 2017. Crystal is currently working on an epic, high-fantasy series titled Aspect.

She got involved with the CWC during project three, Ark, and loves the teamwork and creative process that goes into a CWC novel. She’s excited to help bring another collaborative novel into existence, this time as the Story Coordinator.

Mahima Singh

Chapter 18

"Native to Brooklyn, Mahi lives in Long Island with her fiancée, and newborn baby girl. She found CWC while looking for additional part-time work on Craigslist and was very excited to find them instead. Mahi loves to write but has always wished she had more time to devote. Her writing ranges from poems to short stories to a novel she started to write in high school and hopes to complete and publish one day. Most of her work sits in her worn out notebook, collecting dust, waiting to be read.

In addition to reading and writing, Mahi loves to sing and play guitar with her fiancée and spend time with their daughter, Alia, and dog, Daisy. While adjusting to being a new mother, she's also finishing school as an English major, aspiring to become a literature professor. CWC has provided Mahi with a way to express her creativity from the comfort and convenience of her computer at home while juggling a hectic schedule. "The Map" is the first of many projects Mahi plans to write for."

Claire Chitty

Chapter 16

Claire Chitty is based in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, UK, where she writes mainly horror, paranormal and historical thriller fiction.

Growing up with a ferocious thirst for reading inspired her to pick up the pen and publish her first short story in a woman's magazine in her early 20s. Since then, Claire has written and published stories and poems in magazines, websites, and anthologies.

As well as proudly writing novels with the CWC she is currently working on her own novels as well as continuing to write short stories. All this is done in the company of her five scaley muses: 3 snakes, a gecko, and a very spoilt bearded dragon.

T.S. Dickerson

Chapters 12, 23 & 35

Tara is a long-time lover of storytelling. She began writing for fun in fourth grade; her first work was a poem about dolphins. She wrote for her high-school and college newspapers and her college’s literary magazine but chose a different career path, receiving a Bachelor’s degree in Equine Science.

After joining a group of friends for a weekly “poetry night” at a local restaurant, she rediscovered her love of writing. Now, she has decided to take her passion seriously.

Tara joined the CWC in their fifth collaboration, The Map. She enjoyed the experience so much that she jumped at the chance to become story-coordinator for Esyld’s Awakening.

In addition to her work with the CWC, Tara is in the final stages of writing a post-apocalyptic romance titled The Scarring Underneath.

Tara is happily married with two human children, three dogs, and a cat. Born and raised in Montana, she has also lived in the Pittsburgh area of Pennsylvania, and currently resides in North Dakota.

Jason Pere

Chapters 5, 21 & 33

A Fresh new addition to the community with “Ark” and CWC’s resident Swashbuckler. Jason Pere is a native New Englander, currently residing in Connecticut with his wife and two rambunctious cats. He has had a long standing passion with the arts.

As early as the age of six Jason knew that he wanted to do something creative with his life. He tried his hand at several mediums, picking up a strong interest in acting for film and theater at the age of thirteen and focusing on that craft for over a decade. Life directed Jason to drift away from film and theater over the years and pick up writing as a form of creative expression. He began with poetry and journaling. Every so often Jason would scribble down an odd short story or two. Finally in November of 2012 Jason self-published his first book, Modern Knighthood: Diary of a Warrior Poet, a collection of original poetry and philosophy.

After publication of that book Jason took some time away from novel writing to work in the world of collectible card games, board games and other forms of professional Dorkery. He continued to dabble in poetry and picked at competitive short story writing. Jason returned to full length novel writing in October of 2014 with the “Purgatory” series, a dark fantasy title. The first book in the series is set to be published in late 2015.

Jason discovered CWC early on in 2015 and has been a passionate member since, diving into multiple collaborative fiction projects with other CWC authors. When not writing or enduring his “Real World Job” Jason enjoys, Netflix time with his family, breaking out obscure board games and dorking out with friends, firing up the his game console and surviving a Zombie Apocalypse or indulging in baked goods and sleep.

Sharon Flood

Chapters 3, 11 & 32

Sharon was born in the St. Lawrence River Valley in the 1,000 Islands region, 65 years ago. She worked in retail for forty years, then retired in 2013. She has since taken up writing in a big way. She wrote a little in high school, where she had a poem of hers published in the school's yearbook at age 15. After high school, she went to work, got married, and generally lived her life while her talent lay dormant. She discovered a very good writer's site called protagonize.com in 2008. It's a collaborative writers' site that honed her skills. Through this site she met her first publisher, The Masquerade Crew for her first anthology story - http://www.amazon.com/Forevermore-Travel-Anthology-Sharon-Flood-ebook/dp/B00XSBH4UW. She was chosen as a Mob Boss here: http://www.masqueradecrew.com/p/the-masquerade-mob.html Where she does book reviews for The Masquerade Crew, and on Amazon.com. She is very proud to announce that she is involved with all six collaborative novel projects here – https://www.collaborativewritingchallenge.com. They operate out of New York city. She also has stories published in their Halloween, Christmas and Easter horror anthologies. She also has stories in a few horror anthologies with other publishers.

Eleftheria Chrysochoou

Chapter 7

I started writing stories as a child and my growing love for writing eventually led me to pursue a degree in English & Literature. I have been a video game reviewer since the mid 2000's, a translator for nearly the same number of years, and recently became a qualified English language teacher. After a year of engineering studies in England and a few years of living in Sweden, I currently live in my home country and never take a single day for granted!

Chris Donovan

Chapter 10

Christopher Donovan is an aspiring screenwriter, with a degree in Writing for Film and Television from the University of the Arts. Chris is currently working two jobs while simultaneously trying to overcome his massive procrastination problem to create more original works. While Chris is trained and capable of writing short stories, plays, and television scripts, he is most comfortable creating feature length film scripts.

Chris usually frequents the horror genre. While out of his element, Chris sees this opportunity as a way to practice writing outside of his comfort zone and broaden his thematic horizons. He dreams of bringing some of his horror to the big screen and also whishes to one day be able to write a SyFy original film. He can be found on Twitter: @The_Don_17 and on his Tumblr: @professionalhorror, which he uses to release weekly short horror stories and horror movie reviews.

Rachael Steele

Chapter 2 & 20

Having recently relocated to New York City, this new chapter of Rachael’s life also includes finally being able to let her creative juices flow and start her journey into writing. An Australian born adventurer, Rachael has also had the pleasure of living in England, Canada and Japan.

An avid reader from a young age, Rachael studied Journalism in High school, has dabbled in some poetry and contributed to the travel section of the Qantas Crew Magazine at her former job. This writer is beginning her journey into Creative Writing by contributing to CWC ‘s firsts project: The Concierge, as well as the second project: Ambition, and is also eagerly awaiting her turn to submit a chapter for the third collaboration: Ark.

Rachael is currently taking a short course at “The Writing Institute” at Sarah Lawrence College and is excited to start further courses to help hone her skills in the creative writing field. After a childhood growing up in rural Australia, her worldly travels, and a passion for adventure and other cultures, Rachael has a stockpile of memories and experiences she is eager to share with the world.

Kaylee Kosakowski

Chapter 15

Kaylee Kosakowski is a student studying Television, Film, and Communications. She has always found writing to be her favorite outlet and has worked to improve her skills as a storyteller. From scripts to poetry to short stories to novels, she has dabbled in all areas of writing. In her spare time, she collaborates with her friend to create a marvelous story that they hope will one day be published.

Being one of the younger writers in the project, she fully embraces the opportunity to work with other great authors and people, trusting that every experience will guide her as she grows. Kaylee herself can stand proud having had two chapters selected for The Concierge, and another chapter selected for our second collaboration: Ambition. It’s hard to believe a writer has acquired such diverse skills so early on. This writer is certainly one to watch. She can be found on Twitter: @asiankayleeann.

Iona Carslaw

Chapter 29

Iona currently lives in Great Britain and is hoping to study ‘Creative Writing’ at university. Deciding to become a writer at 12, she has thrown herself into every avenue possible to fulfil this dream, leading to her winning writing prizes such as Falmouth University’s ‘Young Writers’ Award’ in 2014 and getting her story published in ‘With’ literary magazine. Since that moment, she has been working on her own novel, which she hopes to get published in the future.

Sarah Stone

Chapters 14, 24 & 36

Sarah got her start as a writer with fanfiction and her grandfather’s old Windows ’95 desktop computer. After writing all the way through high school, she went to Hollins University for writing and emerged with a BA in History and English with a concentration in creative writing.

It was in early 2015 that Sarah discovered the Collaborative Writing Challenge. She signed up for CWC’s project five, The Map, and loves the challenge of working on a collaborative novel. She is also involved in project six, Esyld's Awakening.

Sarah has worked as a freelance writer, and her articles have been published both online and in-print. She blogs regularly at PaperPenandNoPlan.com.

Saloni Singla

Chapter 27

Saloni is an 18 year old college student from India. She began writing at age 17 and discovered CWC early on in her writing journey. She believes that writing for collaborative projects has helped her improve and grow as a writer. Her hobbies include reading, writing and learning. She is also fond of watching romcoms, listening to pop music, and spending time with friends.

Laura Waide

Chapters 19, 25, 28 & 37

After spending eleven dedicated years serving in the US Navy, Laura Waide, a native to Colorado, elected to pursue the creative side of life. Besides being a life-long bookworm, she has published poetry in several anthologies. CWC’s The Map was her first attempt at longer works of writing and the project proved to unearth her passion for fast-paced, by-the-seat-of-your-pants storytelling.

Laura currently lives in Wisconsin and works as a daytime Environmental, Health, and Safety professional. Outside of work and writing, she spends as much quality time as she can with her two beautiful daughters and two slightly neurotic rescue dogs. She is able to juggle all of life’s precious balls at once with the help of her best friend, her mother. Laura borrows her motto for life from Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist: “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”

Scott Clegg

Chapter 6 & 26

My name is Scott Clegg, 40 years old from San Antonio TX. Originally from Southern California. I moved here over 10 years ago for a better life, slower pace and wide open spaces. I'm a married father of three with a full time profession as a Radiologic Technologist. I began writing nearly 20 years ago when I penned a full length motion picture screenplay titled Bigfoot. It made the rounds to the Hollywood elites, but nothing ever materialized from it.

I'm currently adapting it to a full length novel, because a good story needs to bed told. It's a little slow going with my schedule, but I'm having a great time doing it. I have my fingers in a few other pies as well, attempting to write a serial story piece about a Super Hero, and also a YA science fiction novel about a time traveling boy. All my work can be found at www.whatsfit2print.wordpress.com. Stop by for a read, follow, leave some feedback and let's bounce ideas off one another. I hope you enjoy.

Evelyn K. Pentikis

Chapter 13

Evelyn K. Pentikis is a writer, copyeditor, and mother of two boys. Evelyn has a Certificate in Fiction Writing from the UCLA Extension Writer’s Program and a Certificate in Copyediting from U.C. San Diego Extension. She is a member of the American Copy Editors Society (ACES) and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). Previously, she practiced law. She is currently working on a Young Adult Fiction Novel. Wytch Born is her first collaborative novel with the CWC, and “Retribution” is her first collaborative short story. She also is a contributing writer to CWC’s The Map. In her spare time, Evelyn is an avid runner, swimmer, and reader.

Charlotte Rose Lange

Chapter 34

Charlotte Rose Lange is a recent college grad who works with adult literacy in Wisconsin. Her favorite part about CWC is sorting through all the strings, tying them together, and adding her own bead. She writes best under pressure, so CWC is a perfect fit.

You can read her work at http://www.writerscafe.org/clange. She is an avid chess player and debater, which shows through in her writing style.

Laura Callender

Chapter 31

As the founder of CWC, Laura don't get much time to write, but can't resist taking the challenge every now and then. Jumping into a well established story is something she will always enjoy. When not busy coordinating CWC or running around after two toddlers, Laura designs bespoke book covers. You can find her portfolio here: www.justpublishit.com

Cristel Benítez

Chapter 30

Cristel Benítez lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in a house her cats graciously let her inhabit. She writes mainly as a hobby, but that didn't stop her from joining countless writers' groups. She hopes to make a living off her writing someday. But don't worry, if you ask her, she'll put her serious face on and tell you she's working on her novel.

You can find more of her work on one of CWC's other projects, ARK. And her, well, you can't find her anywhere. Unless you want to be facebook friends. If so, you know the name.

Walter Romans

Chapter 4

Walter was reportedly born in Rodney Mississippi. He has been writing ever since he could hold a pencil. His imagination is just this side of insane, and he enjoys inflicting his works on others. He has tried over the last few years to find a publisher for his works. But has been unsuccessful, as most people can't handle his unfiltered works. He is a current resident of Gulf Oaks Mental Hospital and the doctors are saying his condition is improving. He has a nice room with a wonderful view, right down the hall from the last guy who read one of his stories.

M.W. King

Chapter 17

M. W. King is a writer who dabbles in many genres, her
favorite being fantasy. After six years in the Navy, she decided one tour on a
ship was enough and now squeezes her writing between work, school, and other
hobbies, which include daydreaming, crafting, and napping. She currently resides
in New Hampshire with her husband and three little monsters. She’s been
published in two CWC anthologies and one anthology put together by the Authors’
Tale writing group.